Bioderma vs. Taaj Himalaya

Everybody and their mum knows Bioderma , the cleansing make-up remover perfect for sensitive skin that is well loved by all from make up artists to celebrities and everyone in between! Taaj Himalaya is less well known but could easily be in the running for best micellar water with its calming properties and plant extracts.

I first bought Bioderma on Escentual to see what all of the hype was about, I only bought the small 100ml just to give it a try and since then I've been hooked (and I now refill the cute little bottle so I can travel with it too) - it really is as incredible as everyone says. 

Then, when I went to Paris and was searching the shelves of CityPharma, I saw the Taaj Himayala bottle nestled up high and remembered reading a blog post by Zoella who swore by the stuff so decided to pick it up.

Naturally I felt I had to compare it to Bioderma because I really didn't think I'd ever find something I preferred.

So, i'll start with effectiveness of removal and to be honest I cannot tell a difference, neither require any rubbing or fussing, you just swipe a saturated cotton wool pad across your face to easily remove all traces of make up. The smell however there is definitely a difference between; Taaj Himalaya smells really flowery and fragrant, nice and fresh, whereas Bioderma actually smells a little funny - I can't put my finger on it but all I can think is it's a little plastic-y? It's supposed to be fragrance free but in this case I think a little fragrance wouldn't go amiss. As for how your face is feeling after use, with Bioderma I felt squeaky clean and it dried pretty much instantly. With Taaj I felt a little sticky or greasy and it took a fair while to dry which I really didn't like, I hate feeling sticky with a passion.
Next is the price, for 500ml of Taaj Himalaya it will cost you £16.00 plus p+p from Birchbox and 500ml of Bioderma is £14.50 plus p+p , not a huge difference!
The Taaj Himalaya does include some fancy ingredients like chamomile, green tea and rosemary which all sound like they should be good for you and apparently improve resistance to stress, and it is paraben free which I know can severely irritate some peoples skin, so in that case you may prefer it. However, I still believe nothing is better than Bioderma and am yet to be swayed. I will happily finish my bottle of Taaj Himalaya micellar water but I doubt i'll be buying it again...at least not any time soon!

Which do you prefer?!

Paris!

Needless to say Paris is incredible. You don't even have to have been there to know it's incredible.

I had been once before, almost exactly a year ago with my then best friend and it wasn't anything compared to this time. Before we had travelled by Megabus, a 10 or 12 hour journey by coach and ferry, which doesn't sound that bad except that we travelled overnight and so therefore had to attempt to sleep upright and with minimal legroom - a task I found impossible. Not only that but when we arrived in Paris at 7am we then had to lug our bags around the entire city on an hours sleep until 2pm when we could book into our hostel. Not ideal. The trip had it's moments but overall it was a fail and left me severely disappointed! 

This time however was everything I had wanted/expected it to be and more. I could literally go on about it forever, it was the most amazing trip! I went with my boyfriend, my mum and her boyfriend who had previously lived in Paris for 6 years so that came in handy! We travelled on my birthday by car/euro tunnel, left at 4am and arrived at our hotel in Paris at 12pm and I slept the entire way - yay! 

After arriving at the hotel we got dressed and headed out into the scorching heat onto the metro, which by the way looks scary but if you understand the London tube system you'll figure it out in seconds, into Paris.

After having a look around the Tuileries gardens and getting our bearings we headed to Saint Michel which is the artist area and had an amazing dinner at this adorable little restaurant. The thing about restaurants in Paris is they pretty much all look the same and a bit shabby to be honest but it doesn't affect the food in the slightest. In England you can generally tell if somewhere is going to be posh/expensive/cheap/terrible but in Paris you're going to get amazing quality everywhere which I LOVE.

The Tuileries Garden

So the first day was pretty long and after dinner and a bit of wandering we headed back to the hotel to chill. The second day, however, was mine and my boyfriends time so after a breakfast of coffee and croissants we went straight to the Champs-Élysées to shop and I was in my element. Obviously we all know Paris isn't cheap but that's not something that put me off, I had a few things I knew I was going to buy while I was out there, one of which was some macarons from Ladurée and that's right where I headed! They aren't cheap but they are definitely worth it, if you haven't tried macarons before I urge you to go now to a patisserie and BUY SOME. Obviously I went into Sephora but it was all so expensive and the things I wanted I could actually get quite a bit cheaper in England so in the end I only bought a small eyeshadow... possibly just for the sake of it but hey, that's what us girls are like right?

Laduree

So I didn't want to spend too much money until I had been to the one shop that beauty addicts all know of... you guessed it! City Pharma. The holy grail shop in all of Paris, the cheapest french skin and haircare products you'll find. It was easy to track down in Saint Germain and I was expecting to have to properly battle my way through to even see the shelves but, although it was very busy and narrow, it wasn't half as bad as I had expected.  I picked up a whole bunch of Bioderma, Caudalie and La Roche-Posay products among others - it was literally heaven!

Next we walked to the Notre Dame to do a bit of sightseeing and it was really impressive, you have to see it for yourself! However we were most excited to go to the Love Lock bridge which is just along from the Notre Dame as we wanted to put a lock on ourselves. Some would call this cheesy but I personally think its such a nice idea and loved that my boyfriend suggested it. If you're thinking about putting a lock on the bridge for whatever reason just remember to bring a lock with you because the shops out there charge at least €20 for one! Crazy money. Anyway we went to a little shop by the bridge to engrave our lock with the date, our names, the date we started going out and we also left room so that we can come back and engrave it again each time we visit! Bit soppy but I think it's special. So we put it on and as tradition goes we threw the key in the river (we have a spare).

Notre Dame

Love Lock Bridge

Notre Dame

Putting our lock on

At the Love Lock Bridge

By this time my boyfriend and I were shopped out (he loves shopping) so we went back to the hotel to get showered and dressed for dinner that night where we went to this super cute little restaurant in Saint Germain. The French really do food so well, both of us had steak that night and I'm literally drooling thinking about it, it was incredible. I want some now.
Stuffed we went to the Eiffel Tower, had an ice cream and sat by the fountain watching the light show and taking in the atmosphere before waving goodbye as the next day we were driving down to  the coast for the day (and going to the hypermarket - you can't not go there) before going home.

Eiffel Tower at night

Cheesy ;)

At the coast on the last day

In case you hadn't gathered from this mammoth post, I basically missed Paris before I even left and we're already discussing going again it was that good. I went for three days in total and I think that was actually enough time, city breaks involve a lot of walking and I'm not unfit but I was definitely in need of a rest when I got home!
If you're thinking of going then without a doubt do it although I'm sure no one needs any convincing. Only tip is do it right, no half measures.

Anyone else been to Paris? I love hearing other people's stories!

Immy x